Outlandish

In 1873 the Victorian travel-writer Isabella Bird visits Hilo, Hawaiʻi. She throws herself into the local community with enthusiasm and occasional blunders. At the same time, the new King of Hawaiʻi, Lunalilo, coincidentally stops in Hilo on his inaugural tour through the Islands. Miss Isabella Bird and Lunalilo meet at a party given in his honor by the local sheriff and his wife. These two unusual people get to know each other in ways that challenge and surprise them both. This is a play about changes — give and take — occurring on a Hilo lānaʻi but with reverberations that may echo throughout all of Hawaiʻi and the whole 19th century world — as well as within the warm confines of the human heart.